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(It’s nice to meet you)
"In January 2025, in WA alone, people used their smart phones and laptops/tablets to send scammers at least $3.6 million. In one month!”Our guest speaker Bhargav Parthasarathy had our attention immediately, because he was talking about someone you know, maybe a member of your family.
He was talking about me. And my son’s text message about losing his phone, borrowing one from a friend to send me a message, saying he needed to transfer funds urgently that morning please Dad, which of course he would repay as soon as possible. Which I did, from my seat at the Dome after our regular Tuesday meeting. Ten minutes later I got a call from BankWest cyber security, saying the fund transfer had been intercepted and paused, so I could be informed this whole thing was a scam. All I should have done was call Callum on his apparently ‘lost’ phone and find that he was surprised that someone, maybe in Russia, could so easily persuade me to send them a large sum of money. Not $3.6 million I hasten to say!
So now you know why I tracked down someone, Bhargav, who knew all about phone and Internet scams, and asked him up to speak to our meeting so you won't do what I did.
Bhargav spoke very quickly which made it a challenge for some of our mature age members to keep up, so we have also included the slides & ZOOM recording so you can take your time going through them.
1. ZOOM recording click here
2. SLIDES click here
Key messages
- Text messages/SMS scams are increasing in Australia: they may impersonate someone you know or an organisation you have previously connected to - if in doubt ask for a phone number to call them back.
- e-mail - NEVER click on a link, call the sender instead
- Check the full email address of the sender - Australian companies have the suffix .au, never .ru
- No-one will call asking for your bank details, other than a scammer
- No legitimate business will threaten you like "send us the money you owe or face arrest"
- If in any doubt, disconnect straight away - legitimate callers will leave a message
- Get your laptop/tablet hard drive cleaned
- Call IDCARE on 1800 595 160 if you think your identity is at risk.
Last year email scams cost Aussies $141 million.
Follow these simple rules:
- Be doubtful, especially if the matter is “urgent"
- Keep private things private
- Say - I’ll call you back please give me a number to call
- Tell someone about that call or email you got today
Finally, look at the Scamwatch website https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/
And also take the Quick Quiz to test your scam sense
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